Smaller airports making pleas to secure TSA funding again

Del Rio, Texas, on the Mexican border 150 miles west of San Antonio, has been without commercial air service since mid-2013.

Last August, when Public Charters agreed to provide daily flights from Del Rio to Austin, which would set up a connection to Dallas, it appeared that getting in and out of the town of approximately 40,000 would become easier.

Yet five months later, Del Rio still doesn’t have air service, in large part due to a Nov. 20 decision by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to not provide security for the airport.

“We could offer [the Austin flight] without the TSA, but we would be losing half of our customers,” airport manager Juan Onofre said. Read the full article.